Questions You Must Learn for English Conversations

So, how are things with you?

That question, "So, how are things with you?"

was a very common question that I heard

this past weekend when I was at a little family gathering.

I tried to keep track of all the questions

that I heard English speakers use

when they started conversations with each other,

and I think that one was the most common.

"So, how are things with you?" or the shorter version,

"So, how are things?"

So in this English lesson, I thought I would share with you

all of the different types of questions

that I heard at the family gathering I was just at.

All of the questions that native English speakers used

when they were starting conversations with each other.

(gentle upbeat music)

Well, hello and welcome to this English lesson

where I'm going to help you learn some questions you can use

when you're having an English conversation.

Before we get started, though,

if this is your first time here,

don't forget to click that red subscribe button over there,

and give me a thumbs up if this video helps you learn

just a little bit more English.

So the questions I'm going to teach you today

are not questions you would use with people you work with

or classmates at school.

You wouldn't use these questions

with people who you see every day,

these are questions you would use to start conversations

with people who you haven't seen for a few days

or a couple of weeks or a few months,

or even more than a year.

So these are questions that you can use

when you go to a family gathering.

They're questions you can use

when you see a friend who you haven't seen for awhile.

And they're great questions to use to start a conversation,

but they're also great questions to use

during the conversation.

So let's get started.

The first question I wanted to teach you is the question,

"How have you been?"

Or we sometimes add the word so in front and we say,

"So, how have you been?"

But I'm saying it kind of slowly.

Here's how I would ask that question at normal speed.

I would say, "So, how have you been?"

I kind of mush all the words together

at the beginning of the question.

So, how have you been?

This is a question we ask

when we wanna know about someone's well-being.

We wanna know if they've been healthy,

we wanna know if they've been enjoying life,

we wanna know if they've been happy.

So the first question you could ask is,

"So, how have you been?"

The second question I wanted to teach you

is the question, "What's new?"

Or there's actually a longer version,

we sometimes say, "So, what's new with you?"

And again, I should say it at full speed, right?

So, what's new with you?

This is a question we ask because life continually changes.

If you haven't seen someone for a week,

or two weeks, or a month, there's probably new things

that have happened in their life.

And this is a great question to ask

if you want to know about them.

So you say things like, "Hey, so what's new?"

Or, "So, what's new with you?"

And then they might tell you about a new car,

they might tell you about a new job,

they might tell you about a new baby

that's been born in their family.

But it's a great question to ask

to find out if anything new has happened in their life.

The third question you could ask someone

to start an English conversation,

or even during an English conversation, is this,

"What have you been up to lately?"

I actually heard this question a lot this past weekend.

People would say, "Hey, it's good to see you.

What have you been up to lately?"

Life is full of activities.

People have hobbies, people have jobs.

There are things that people do every day

and sometimes those things change.

So it was really fun to be able to ask this question.

And it was fun that people asked me this question,

because then you can talk about

the new things that you've been doing lately.

So the third question you can ask,

"What have you been up to lately?"

And I should say it at full speed, shouldn't I?

What have you been up to lately?

That was still a little bit slow.

What have you been up to lately?

That's how I would say it at normal speed.

What have you been up to lately?

The fourth question you can ask is, "How are things?"

That's kind of the short version.

You could say, "So, how are things?"

Or, "So how are things with you?"

That's actually the question I used

when I started this video.

This is a nice general question. It's a very broad question.

When you say to someone, "So, how are things with you?"

they can answer by talking about work,

they can talk about their family,

they can talk about a new car that they bought.

It's a really good way to start an English conversation

because it allows the person you are talking to

to answer in a variety of ways.

"So, how are things with you?" Or, "So how are things?"

Often when talking to a friend or a relative,

there are things about their life

that you already know about,

but you want to inquire about them,

you wanna ask questions about them.

And we often do this by combining the word how with is

to make the contraction how's.

We ask questions like this. "How's the family?

How's the new car? How's work?"

These are all questions where you kind of need to know

a little bit about the person's life.

And you can ask these questions

and then they can kind of give you an update.

I just used a question like this this past weekend.

My brother-in-law, I knew he had bought a new truck,

and when he was here, I said, "How's the new truck?"

So you can combine how with is to make the contraction how's

and ask questions about things

you already know a little bit about,

but you want to know more.

A sixth way to ask questions during an English conversation

is to use the word how and was

to ask questions about the past.

You could ask questions like this. "How was your trip?

How was your drive? How was your weekend?

How was your day off?"

So we use again, the question word how with was

in order to ask questions

about things we know already happened.

"How was your trip?"

Life is full of changes.

Maybe someone has retired, maybe they got married,

maybe they had a baby, maybe they started a new job

or went to university.

And there's a fun way of asking a question

about things like that.

You add the phrase treating you to the end of the question.

So you can ask questions like this.

"How's fatherhood treating you? How's marriage treating you?

How's that new job treating you?

How's retirement treating you?"

It's just a fun way to ask someone

about the change that's happened in their life,

and it gives them an opportunity to kind of explain

how that change has made their life different.

So you can ask questions just like that.

I could even ask that question to you

about learning English.

I could say, "How's learning English treating you?"

and you could tell me what it's like

to be an English student.

Well, hey, thanks for watching this English lesson

where I helped you learn some new questions you can use

when you have your next English conversation.

If this is your first time here,

don't forget to click that red subscribe button over there,

and give me a thumbs up if this video helped you learn

just a little bit more English.

And if you have the time, why don't you stick around

and watch another English lesson.

(gentle upbeat music)